Welcome to Barely Legal: The Blog; This blog is run by two recent law school grads, Russ and Mike. Back when we were still law students, this was the most popular law student run blog in the world. Now, who knows what we are or what this blog is. Nevertheless, everything on this blog is uncontroverted fact, and should be interpreted as such.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Special Ed

My elementery school had a good special education program. As a part of this program, the special ed kids went to regular classes for a few hours a day. However, while the rest of us learned, the special ed kids just colored or did word finds or played with construction paper. If the kid was good and didn't disrupt the rest of the class from their normal learning, he got a gold star.

A few weeks ago, a professor scolded me for not being prepared. I was completely unfazed by this. I felt not surprise, embarassment, or regret. In fact, I didn't even look up from my IM conversation. He might as well have just told me that I was wearing a blue shirt. Being unprepared is such a common occurance for me that he was just stating the obvious. It now occurs to me that I am the law school equivalent of the special ed kid in my elementery school classes, although my impairment is not cognitive, it's motivational.

You see, a second semester 3L is different from other law students. Whatever motivation he or she once had is all but gone. For those of us who didn't have much motivation to begin with, this semester is even more excruciating. So why are professors continuing to treat us like normal law students? All of my classes have eager and ambitious 2Ls in them. They are prepared and ready to speak. They went to the trouble of reading, why not let them flex their intellectual muscles.

Thomas Jefferson once said, "There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people." Would it have been fair to ask the special ed kid to do the same spelling exercises or fraction problems as the rest of the class? Of course not. So why do professors expect the same work ethic from 3Ls as they do from 2Ls? If you are going to require my presence, then at least just let me sit there quietly, play with my coloring book, and if I behave, give me a gold star. We'll all be better off if you do.